


Vegetarians

by A_New_Believer



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Brief Appearance Of Snow White | Mary Margaret Blanchard, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-07 23:34:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17375315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_New_Believer/pseuds/A_New_Believer
Summary: Emma and Killian face their first real challenge as parents over breakfast one morning.





	Vegetarians

   “Morning, sweetheart.” Emma said, greeting Hope on the bottom step with a soft kiss on her forehead and a fond stroke of her soft hair. Despite Emma’s best attempts Hope still refused to allow her to cut it and it was currently reaching halfway down her back in long gorgous - if not slightly tangled - waves.

   “Morning, mummy.” Hope chanted. She said the same thing every morning and lately it had begun to sound like a very rehearsed and boring statement rather than a friendly greeting. She jumped off the last step and hurried towards the kitchen just as her father appeared.

   “Hey there, Little Sea Lass!” Killian said, pausing in the doorway to pick her up and swing her around, her bare feet narrowly missing knocking a picture from off the wall as he did.

   “Careful!” Emma warned, but couldn’t quite fight the urge to smile as she watched Killian cheerfully carry an excited Hope over to the table.

   After Killian set Hope down at her usual place in her usual seat, he immediately moved to finish making up her hearty pirate fry up he claimed to be famous for. He made it once a week for the whole family and it was Hope’s most favourite morning dish, even more than the chocolate cereal her mother always brought specially for her.

   Except something had changed.

   When Killian turned and set the fresh plate down in front of her, he didn’t notice Hope slide down in her seat away from it, instead turning to quickly dish up Emma’s breakfast as well. They had settled into a pretty familiar routine over the years and while Killian prepared the food, Emma set about getting their things together so they could drop Hope off at school before making their way down to the station. It was a lazy Friday so they were starting at the same time and then Emma would finish early to pick Hope up, take her home, and wait for Killian to join her a few hours later. It was such a normal thing they barely blinked twice as they set about doing their tasks.

   “Oh, by the way, I told mum we’d visit for dinner Sunday.” Emma said, walking into the room and setting Hope’s pink and purple backpack on the table edge closest to the door.

   “What about our lunch on the Jolly Rogers?” Killian asked instantly.

   “We can still do that. It’ll be a late dinner so there’s plenty of time.” Emma shrugged, reaching to take the offered plate.

   “Alright then,” Killian said, hiding his displeasure. It’s not that he didn’t like dinner with the Nolan family – in fact he and David were on the best terms they’d ever been since Hope was born – but after a day out on the Jolly Roger, he always enjoyed returning home to simply relax for the rest of the day and not have to worry about going out again. At least not for anything less than an emergency.

   “Okay, I’ll let her know we’ll be there around-” Emma cut herself off. She had turned around to eat at the table like she always did but was stunned to the spot mid sentence at the sight of her daughter. Hope wasn't eating, in fact she was sat pouting at the untouched plate in front of her. “Hope? You okay?”

   “What’s up, love?” Killian asked, immediately setting the pan aside and moving towards her. “Why aren’t you eating up? You'll be late for school if you don't hurry.”

   “I can’t.” Hope mumbled.

   “You can't eat? Why not?” Emma set her plate down and moved to crouch beside her chair. “Do you have a tummy ache?”

   “No…”

   “Do you feel sick?” Emma pressed.

   Hope shook her head, her lose hair flying out and a few strands falling down over her face between her blue-green eyes. “It’s not that…”

   “Then what is it?” Killian asked, putting a hand on the back of her seat and leaning towards her.

   Hope reached up, poking her plate with a finger and gently pushing it further away. “I can’t eat it… Cause of it’s family?”

   “What?” Emma and Killian both shared confused looks before turning back to her.

   Hope finally pointed directly at the bacon slices. “It was a pig before… And it had a family…” Tears began to swell in her eyes.

   Once again, Emma and Killian found themselves pausing and puzzled, unsure how to respond. They’d already spoken with Hope about where her food came from (farms and such) and she knew what meat was (roughly at least), yet something had clearly changed between that conversation and now. Because now her usual rosy cheeks looked positively green and she was on the verge of sobbing at the sight of the strips lying next to her carefully placed scrambled egg.

   “Why do you say that, sweetheart?” Emma asked gently.

   “Because I met them.” Hope said, sitting up slightly and looking at her mother. “Yesterday with Alice.”

   Emma looked up at Killian, but realization was already dropping on his features at the same time as her.

   Yesterday, Killian and Emma had both needed to work late and so had called Alice (the only one available at the time) to pick Hope up from school and watch her for a few hours until they could get home. That evening Hope had returned, excited and bubbling with joyful stories about Alice taking her into the woods and using her magic to attract the nearby animals. She then used her magic to keep them calm and allow Hope to stroke and meet every single one of them, even introducing them to the species, from foxes to doves to rabbits and everything else in between that was hiding in the trees around Storybrooke’s little home. It had – in her own words – been one of the best days outs ever and she couldn’t wait to do it again.

   Emma and Killian had thought it sweet, and had even called Alice back again to see if she felt up for babysitting next week while they went out on their monthly date night. Neither of them had considered Hope had met with any of the farms local pigs, in fact they had assumed she had only met wild animals (ones she wasn’t likely to eat the next day). And it seemed they were very wrong about that and now the days outing was coming back to bite them.

   “Love, you can’t not eat.” Killian said as sternly as he could manage with his sweet baby girl. “This meal is good for you, it’ll get you through the day.”

   “But I can’t! It had a mummy and daddy and they’re probably looking for him. There were sad pigs yesterday. I bet it was because of their baby was gone.” Hope cried.

   Killian started to reply when Emma grabbed his arm and stopped him. “Killian, a moment.” She pulled him to the side as Hope began to use her fork to push the bacon off her plate altogether, pulling a face every time the cold metal touched the fatty slither of meat. “We need to be careful.” Emma whispered, still watching Hope closely. “If we say the wrong thing we can traumatize her for life.”

   “Well she’s got to eat.” Killian insisted.

   “I know, but maybe there’s a way around it.” Emma shrugged, glancing as Hope began nibbling on her toast.

   Killian wondered for a moment. “What if we get Alice to come and tell Hope the bacon’s not from the pigs family or something?”

   “Yeah, let’s get the vegetarian Mother Nature powered girl to tell our daughter to eat her meat.” Emma snorted, rolling her eyes before shaking her head. “Honestly, Alice might even do it for us, she'd a good kid, but we can’t call on her to parent our daughter. We need to handle this ourselves.”

   “Then what do you think we should say?” Killian asked.

   Emma thought it over before nodding confidently. “I got this.” She said, striding over to her daughter with a soft smile back on her face…

* * *

    “Hey! Glad you could make it!” Snow said, stepping forward to embrace Emma and Killian quickly before ducking to give Hope a welcome hug that lasted much longer. “Neal’s just inside, honey. Why don’t you two play a bit before dinner?”

   “Okay, grandma!” Hope said, bouncing past her and into the house.

   “You are gonna love the roast I made.” Snow said, shutting the door behind her daughter and son-in-law as they stepped into the hallway.

   “Yeah…” Emma said slowly, stopping short and turning to face her. “About that…”

   Snow heard the hesitation in her voice as clear as day and looked up to see both of them had twisted expression of guilt on their faces. “What is it?”

   Emma looked at Killian but he just waved her to do the honours. Finally Emma sighed and shrugged. “Long story short? The Swan-Jones household is officially Vegetarian.”

   Hope definitely had both her parents wrapped around her finger.


End file.
